Creating an Heirloom: Writing Your Family's Cookbook - Softcover

Whipple, Wendy A. Boughner

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1413748945 ISBN 13: 9781413748949

Publisher: Publishamerica Inc, 2005

Synopsis

Creating an Heirloom: Writing Your Family's Cookbook is a guide to help families take their treasured recipes and turn them into an heirloom that will last for generations. Recipes are records of our cultural history and the memories that go with them are precious. This book will show you how to gather, create, and archive all of those into something more than a cookbook: you will be creating an heirloom.

About this title

About the Author

When the author set out to creating her own heirloom, she couldn't find any advice in print or online to help her put it together. Afterwards, she wrote an internationally recognized webpage about the process that has helped thousands of visitors. Whipple is an alumna of Drake University, and a member of the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors, and the Heartland Writers Guild.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From the first chapter...

Which Cookbook Will You Write?

So you ve decided to sit down and gather your family s treasured recipes. Good for you! The aromas from the kitchen can evoke more memories than can mere words. Talking to family about some of their favorite dishes and recollections will provide you with a rich tapestry that you can craft into a cookbook. Your cookbook, an heirloom in the making, will be something everyone in your family will appreciate. Later generations will praise you for your efforts and your foresight in collecting it all in the first place.

The question then becomes, where do you start? You need a clear goal in mind or your project will be an enormous mish-mash of intentions and ideas. Are you collecting recipes from a certain part of your family just your mom s side, just your dad s, your side of the family, your side and your spouse s? Once you have that decided, you can think about theme. Really, you don t need one, but! it can help you stay on track. If you re intending for the book to be done for a Christmas gift, you could choose that holiday as your theme. In that Christmas cookbook could be included various special occasion recipes and the sweet treats that are only made once a year. If you re intending a family reunion cookbook, your focus could be on the more historical aspects of the recipes and the people who made them. Perhaps you want to make a single cookbook to welcome a new bride into your family, and want the family favorites from both families. All of those ideas lend themselves to a theme in both recipe content and look of the cookbook.

Keep in mind that you need to plan in advance for these occasions. If your sibling gets engaged, consider asking folks to contribute recipes as soon as possible, so that you will have plenty of time to get the book finished before the wedding. And don t start a Christmas gift in November! Three months is the absolute minimum time you should allow yourself to put your cookbook together; six months is a much more reasonable time frame.

Small Families
It is entirely possible that you don t have any old family recipes, or that the family members that you could have asked for recipes have passed away. Or maybe your family is just small, or really spread-out, or simply not close-knit. If you still want to make a family cookbook, don t let those things stop you! Take the dishes your family loves and include those. Write about the birthday cake that your child asks for every year, or the special barbecue you make for Independence Day, and what your family does that day. What do you serve for Christmas dinner? Was there a special celebration for some family milestone

Your cookbook could be something that you put together out of love for a child leaving home. It could be a tribute not necessarily to your entire family tree, but to your immediate family. The cookbook you write could be a legacy for grandchildren and great-grandchildren you haven t even met yet. You don t need an army of relatives to make a family cookbook, just a lot of love and patience.

You are bound only by your imagination. Hopefully you are now filled with inspiration, and ready to begin!

Edition details

• Publisher: Publishamerica Inc
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1413748945
• ISBN 13: 9781413748949
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 122